A Hasty Tolkien Review
This is the hastiest review I’ve ever written. It’s mostly for a few local friends to take advantage of a great deal (and to share a bunch of cool pictures).
In short, I have been delving deeply into the Lord of the Rings, and have 4-5 items I want to recommend to anyone else curious about this obscure little adventure series.
J.R.R. Talkin’
I’m not surprised you’ve never heard of the Lord of the Rings. It had a brief spark of popularity in the U.K. but was a little too weird to gain mainstream appeal. I read the books AFTER seeing the Peter Jackson movies, and they definitely colored my expectations.
I read The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and…that’s it. I’ve made several attempts throughout the years to read through them again and always failed halfway through the Two Towers.
But this year I found myself eagerly awaiting the 5th book in the Stormlight Archive (SOOON!), and I figured I could fill that empty space with Tolkien.
To make this read-through attempt different from previous failures, I found several resources that helped bring the books to life. Maybe you’ll enjoy them as well.
Andy Serkis is a Wizard (and Elf, and Hobbit, and Orc and…)
In 2021, when the world needed him most, Andy Serkis narrated all 4 books of the Lord of the Rings. Although he is most known for doing the voice of Gollum from the movies, Serkis is a talented voice actor for hundreds of characters.
And he brings all that experience to bear in his stunning narration of these books. Gandalf has a rough, weathered voice while Gimli’s speed is deep and clipped short. Frodo has an smooth elf-like quality while Pippin is light and chipper. It sounds like a full cast of narrators! My favorite detail is that whenever a character is being tempted by the ring they start to sound more and more like Gollum! Very cool.
I’ve been primarily consuming the books using these Audio versions, and it’s been a fantastic way to make this reading attempt successful.
Rings of Power Makes the Books Better
Rings of Power is poorly written, awkwardly paced, and looks beautiful.
Watching the show was such a miserable, boring experience that I would return to the books after each episode, desperate for some quality storytelling.
I don’t really recommend it, but it is wild to see such a contrast between the quality of the show and the quality of the source material. Maybe keep the show muted and just let the images play in the background while you read the books.
Malcolm Guite Youtube Readings
Each video is about 15 minutes long. They are rough, unedited, a little awkward, and I love them. Each one opens with Malcolm Guite inviting you into his study to listen to a calm and engaging reading. Malcolm will read passages from The Lord of the Rings, poems, or other bits of literature. He’s the grandfather I never had, and he makes me want to read Lord of the Rings all day long.
I’ll recommend one of my favorite of his videos to start.
The World of Tolkien by David Day
I saw this box set at Costco for $39.99, and I couldn’t resist picking it up. The books have this beautiful engraved cover, and I was hungry for more Tolkien content. I literally (hah) just brought the box set home, took a few pics, and skimmed through the books.
I am entirely satisfied with my purchase and would recommend it as an affordable way to immerse yourself more deeply into Tolkien’s world.
Pros:
- The books are high quality; their softcovers are beautifully engraved and the pages are a nice thick cream material.
- There is SO MUCH ART! It feels like every 5-6 pages I’m presented with a beautiful page of artwork. I really cannot stress enough how gorgeous these pieces of art are.
- The text is large and easy to read. Very much a coffee-table style book, it never felt like a text book or technical manual.
The cons are…a little more complicated.
Upon doing some research I found that the writer of these books, David Day, is not well-regarded among Tolkien scholars.
Apparently he’s notorious for taking liberties with the source material and making implications or guesses that Tolkien probably did not intend. I actually got a first-hand example in the beginning of the book about Hobbits. Here is his opening point, paraphrased by me:
Let us begin by examining the origin of the word “Hobbit”. After all, Tolkien was a master of language, and he built the word “Hobbit” as a linguistic joke. I present as evidence the English Oxford Dictionary (which Tolkien contributed towards). If you look at the 13 words (mirroring the 13 dwarves) listed in the dictionary around “Hobbit”, each word gives us a clue as to their nature. For example, the word “hobo” tells us that the hobbits were once a race of wandering migrants.
This is a little hard to swallow. While I’m sure Tolkien considered various linguistic roots of the word “hobbit”, I don’t think we can make the leap that since “hobo” is similar to “hobbit” then the hobbits must have been wanderers. Feels way more like a fun coincidence. And it’s wild to claim that ALL of this was a very intentional joke that only fellow dictionary readers would ever understand.
If you are interested in more serious Tolkien scholarship, then I wouldn’t recommend these books. However, if you can read these books with a light sense of enjoyment, and focus mostly on the pretty pictures, then I think for $39.99 you’re getting a bargain! Here are a few other examples of the artwork contained within:
